Spelunky 1 & 2

Spelunky or Spelunky HD is a remake of the classic Spelunky game. It was developed and published by Mossmouth in 2013 and took the world by storm. The game has influenced the genre and is widely considered as one of the best rogue-lite platformers ever.

The following review was written by Nex.

Spelunky 2 is the long-awaited sequel. Made by Mossmouth and BlitzWorks and published by Mossmouth in 2020, the game builds upon the creativity and randomness of the first game and improves in practically all aspects. In my opinion, it was the best indie game of 2020.

In this review you will learn about the world of spelunky, hardcore gameplay, speedrunning, collecting gold, and much more. It might be a bit longer than usual, but it’s going to be worth it if you buy the game!

The World of Spelunky

As the name suggests, you are a spelunker (funnily named Spelunky Guy). You explore caves in the search for gold and find a mysterious journal. It belonged to a person named Yang (who also happens to be a spelunker). As it explains the basic mechanics through a tutorial, you realize that the cave is magical, and each death brings you back to the entrance, and the layout changes. This is known as procedurally generated gameplay.

You cannot explore the levels forever though. After a certain period, a ghost will spawn and follow you around until it consumes you. The Ghost travels slowly, moves through walls, and can only be stopped by exiting the level (or delayed a few seconds with a camera).

Every run starts the same: You will have 4hp, 4 bombs, and 4 ropes. Your only weapon is the whip. This means, your character doesn’t improve, there aren’t permanent bonuses, no cheats or tricks. The only thing improving with each run is your understanding of the game and your ability to play well. You will explore the world, acquire powerful items, earn gold, avoid traps, kill monsters before eventually dying.

Spelunky 2 has slight alterations but continues in the same direction. Its story describes a young girl named Anna and her dog Monty flying to the Moon in the search of her parents (Spelunky guy and Tina). The idea is the same, a magical cave where upon death you wake up at the start and begin your journey anew. The execution is far better, levels have multiple layers, aren’t as straight-forward and there are branching paths.

Spelunky

The Journal

Everything you do will be recorded in the journal. Every enemy you encounter, every trap you trigger, item you find, area you explore. Every death will also be marked as one in the journal, along with a small message of what killed you or how you died. The journal also keeps track of your success rate, fastest win, most gold collected in a run, and other important information.

Standard run

Your journey through spelunky will not be an easy one. Each attempt will begin in the mines, the starting area. You will face enemies like cavemen, spiders, snakes, and bats, as well as spike and tiki traps. Starting from level 1-2, which is the second level of the mines, a shop might spawn. You can spend your hard-earned gold here to purchase items that will help you reach the end. But you are a spelunker, you want all the gold for yourself! So you have to steal. Be warned though, shopkeepers hate shoplifters more than anything else. They are difficult to kill and starting from the next level, one will wait for you at each level exit. Killing shopkeepers is well worth it as they drop the shotgun, one of the most powerful weapons in the game.

Once you manage to beat the caves, you will find yourself in a jungle area. You will face even more powerful cavemen, the tiki warriors. They carry boomerangs and will kill any unsuspecting spelunkers. Other enemies include blue and orange frogs and man-eating plants that will kill you instantly.

The jungle

Past the jungle is the third area known as ice caves. Its unique enemies are yetis (which cannot be whipped) and aliens. This area might seem simple at first, but it’s quite tricky. Random explosions that you can’t influence will sometimes end your runs abruptly. Or you might drop down to realize the caves don’t have the bottom layer and you find yourself falling into a bottomless pit.

The final area is the Temple and it’s by far the hardest one. The powerful Hawkmen and Crocodilemen await you in the temple. As well as mummies, crush traps, scorpions, and lava pits. Each of the enemies has its weak point, learn them and use them often.

At the end of the temple, you will find the statue of Olmec. Olmec is the boss of the game. It will try to crush you if you are within its range. It’s intimidating at first, but once you learn how to kill him, he should be trivial. Occasionally he will spawn enemies that might ruin your plans, but you can always take a break and deal with them first.

Secret and hidden levels

Sometimes you might encounter a level feeling, that will be marked with a simple text when entering the level. They can be different depending on the area. In the caves you might get level with an increased number of spiders, in the jungle, there is a chance that there is a water section in the bottom layer, in the ice caves you might find a king Yeti and so on… There are several level feelings, try to find them all.

Some of these levels might lead to other hidden levels. Namely, the restless feeling might spawn a king’s throne which will open the haunted castle door, allowing you to explore it instead of the regular next level. Other times you might use a different tactic to get into the hidden levels as the worm or the mothership. These levels are difficult but have some of the best improvements in the game.

The game also has an alternate route and a true final boss. It’s a complex route filled with mystery and events that must be done in order. I am not gonna spoil it for you here. Go play and find out on your own!

Shortcuts

After reaching the next area for the first time, you will meet Tunnel man. He will offer to make a shortcut for you in exchange for certain resources. Long term these shortcuts will allow you to practice certain regions without repeating earlier ones. Note that certain achievements will not work when using shortcuts.

Unlockable Characters

In spelunky you start with 4 available characters with 16 additional ones to be unlocked, plus 1 extra hidden one (I haven’t even unlocked it myself). These characters are purely cosmetical and make no difference to the gameplay.  There is a random chance you can find them at any level in any run. However, some can only be found in certain levels. For example, super meat boy can only be found in the worm level.

Spelunky 2

The Basics

Spelunky 2 picks up where the original stopped. The essential gameplay is the same, the journal, new unlockable characters, shortcuts, even Olmec! Yes, Olmec appears in all 3 games.

You begin your journey in the dwellings this time and encounter your first boss as early as level 1-4. Due to lack of resources early on, you can either choose to kill him (he drops a small heal and a bomb bag) or simply skip him entirely and move on.

At this moment you are presented with your first pathing choice. You can follow the route from spelunky and go into the jungle, or you can explore the new area called volcana. The areas are vastly different from each other but each hides a special item you need for the alternate ending. That makes either route a potential correct choice.

Basic areas

After completing the second area, you will find yourself face to face with an old friend. Olmec is back, meaner than ever. He has some secrets for you in lower levels, so make sure to explore here. In this boss fight, you are faced with your second pathing choice. You can either go to the temple (similar to spelunky) or into the tidepool, the new area. Each area has options for the alternate ending, so it’s entirely up to you where you want to go.

Going through these areas will not be easy, but if you manage to do so, you will find yourself in the ice caves again. This is a mandatory area and has only 1 level, as opposed to the standard 4. However, this 1 level is very long and always features a back-layer section with the yeti king and queen.

Successfully traversing the caves will allow you to enter Neo Babylon, the final area of the game. You will be faced with traps, lasers, aliens, Olmites, and random explosions. Well deserved the hardest area of the game. At the end of Neo Babylon, you will encounter Tiamat. She sits upon her throne and summons enemies to her aide. She will prove a difficult opponent without resources or planning. Defeating her concludes a standard Spelunky 2 run.

As in spelunky there is an alternate harder path. I will not go into detail and let you find out how to get there on your own.

Major Differences

What are some differences compared to Spelunky? First of all, each level has a ghost jar now. You can break it to get a diamond worth a lot of gold, but it will also activate the ghost immediately. Another important change is that now you can get forgiveness from shopkeepers. Online Multiplayer should be fully functional as well.

Speedrunning

Spelunky and Spelunky 2 are very much perfect games to speedrun. It’s all about the skill of the player, his adaptability and quick thinking, as well as fast reflexes. Certain items allow for weird strategies, such as the teleporter. It allows you to teleport past walls, however, the exact range is random. With this item, the best speedrunners can complete the game in about 2 minutes.

The end? Or the beginning

That about does it for this review. Spelunky HD is one of my favorite games of all time, I recommend it to everyone. Spelunky 2 seems better in every way, but you can’t improve perfection. I still suggest you play it, it is amazing!

Minimum System Requirements:

Spelunky:

OS: Microsoft Windows XP, Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz or equivalent, Memory: 2 Gb RAM, Graphics: 3d graphics card, DirectX: Version 9.0c, Storage: 200 Mb disc space, Note: Xbox controller recommended

Spelunky 2:

OS: Windows 10 64-bit, Processor: Quad-Core 2.6 GHz, Memory: 4 Gb RAM, Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 750DirectX: Version 11, Storage: 600 Mb available space, Note: Requires Full DirectX 11 support including a Direct3D Hardware feature 11.0 GPU

The incredible adventures of Van Helsing

If you enjoyed Diablo, Grim Dawn or Path of Exile, then this game is for you. Don't be discouraged by the reviews on steam, as they aren't glowing bright. But then, when are they? In all honesty, Van Helsing does have it's quirks but it's a large game with plenty of content to enjoy. If you can find it on sale for a few bucks - it has enough content to be more than worth it for a fan of the genre.

Van Helsing was originally released as three separate chapters. But, there's now a "final cut" edition which is basically all three chapters merged into one game. Convenient, no? It might still be better and likely cheaper to just get the chapters separately, because you can import your character progress into the later chapters. There are not many games nowadays that have such a feature.

Features

Van Helsing has all the features of a great Diablo-like, a.k.a. an isometric hack and slash. Six character classes to choose from, tons of weapons and armor to find, hordes of monsters to defeat. It's pretty cliché in a way but it's even got the red health and blue mana bars. Everything should feel fairly familiar to a fan, no tutorial needed.

You're a gun shooting, sword wielding half-blood human-vampire hybrid. You've probably heard as much of the Van Helsing story, seen the movies, or checked the Netflix series. And you can forget all of those as none of them are canon in any way other than the bare essence.

Right as you start, the atmosphere is dark and gritty - in a good way. You'll be walking through dungeons and muddy streets in no time. Later in the game things turn to green multi dimensional floating space platform weird. No worries, the main of the game is still forests, caves and cities.

At some point you should unlock your hideout - and you will have your storage, NPCs and all the classic town-perks that you'll have seen in most diablo like games.

The classes are weird at first glance, but translate fairly well to other games once you take a deeper look. There's the warrior, ranger and mage but just with different names and quirks. And then there's at least 2 more artificer style classes which focus on technology rather than the classic weaponry.

Difficulty

If you've never played an isometric hack and slash before - this might not be the best one to start with.

Originally, starting Van Helsing chapter 2 without a chapter 1 save would quickly put you in a difficult position. Monster and item scaling was rather lopsided, and resorting to ranged weapons was generally the way to go unless you enjoyed getting swarmed and killed.

Leveling is a bit slower than you may be used to - so it's a good idea to take your time and kill everything. Re-running some earlier areas for XP will help you both with gear and levels. It "is" a difficult game, just keep in mind it's very doable if you don't rush through everything.

The Diablo franchise eventually chose to add synergies and strip it's trees down to a bare minimum. Games like Path of Exile, Grim Dawn and Van Helsing however, went full crazy and added as many choices as they could. Not for the faint of heart - if you enjoy cookie cutter builds you may want to spend some time researching the best path to take.

And it's not even just "your" skill tree you need to worry about.

Solo or cooperative

One of the more common complaints about the game is the lacking and dysfunctional cooperative gameplay mode. Which is a shame, but in the end somewhat meaningless if you enjoy playing solo. As always you have your lovely banshee Katarina to complement you, so you're never alone.

Luckily she even comes with her very own skill tree and equipment slots. You can have her outfitted as a full melee murder banshee, or long range support caster. Whatever you need and best suits your gameplay style. She also has many snarky voice lines in a haughty noblewoman's accent, which a big and enjoyable plus.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: The Final Cut (Yes that's quite a long title) - was released on: 6 Nov, 2015

Minimum system requirements: Windows XP SP3, Dual Core CPU 2 GHz, 2 GB Ram, Geforce 8800, Radeon HD 4000 and at least 512 MB VRam, DirectX 9, 40 GB Available Disk Space.

There's also an optional high res DLC package available for free if you have a powerful enough PC, and at least 20 GB extra disk space available. I can highly recommend getting this if your PC is up to the task.

The King's Bird

Escape into a world kept secret by a tyrant, and discover the truth about your freedom. Run, jump, and fly through forgotten lost kingdoms with a uniquely momentum-based flying mechanic.

The following review was written by Nex.

Intro

The King’s Bird is a platformer developed by Serenity Forge and published by Graffiti Games in 2018. Game informer mentioned that it’s one of the most promising indie games of the year. I first heard about the game last year when it appeared in an HB monthly. Since I love platformers I immediately took a liking to this one. The game is visually pleasing, has a unique flying mechanic and collectibles. A perfect game for any fan of the genre.

Story

The story in King’s Bird is told entirely through images and short clips. There is practically no text (the only exception is the outro before the credits) and you are free to interpret the story in your way.  The way I understood it is very simple: You are a princess of a hidden city where people are confined within a barrier. Forbidden to explore the outside world, you will do anything to realize your dream of flying freely through the skies. You follow your father, the king, and steal the ability to go through the barrier.

Upon leaving the city, you are free to explore the world but soon realize what has happened to your ancestors and why the barrier was created in the first place. The final level of the game sees your father die at the hands of a tyrant and you alone must defeat him and lead your people into a new age.

The Good

The game’s main appeal is the gliding mechanic. In addition to standard platforming, you have the ability to glide for a few seconds. You will use this ability to gain momentum and fly upwards, cross great chasms, climb buildings, and a lot more… The momentum you build will allow you to reach new heights with each jump as you master the flight.

Music is extremely adequate. It will help you achieve full immersion into the world of King’s Bird. The sound is tied to your movement speed to further emphasize this idea. The original soundtrack is available for purchase directly on steam, and for 6.79€ it’s a steal.

Levels

Level design is top-notch. Once you leave the tutorial area, you will find yourself exploring different regions of the game. Each world is inspired by a different culture including Mayan, Roman, and Southern Asian. Furthermore, every area is then subdivided into smaller sections with 4 levels each. Not all sections are available from the start, but you gotta unlock them by completing a certain number of previous levels. This method will allow you to gain new skills in order and never feel like a level might be too hard.

There are 3 main types of levels. The standard one requires you to reach the end in any way you can. Barrier levels will force you into a mini barrier which will stop you from gliding. These levels remind me of classic platformers like Super meat boy where you only have your run and wall jump abilities. The third and final type is Maze, which will require you to collect a set of white jars before you can finish the level.

Birds

Throughout the game, you will find a lot of spirit birds. Every level has them, they are not mandatory for progress, but collecting them brings personal satisfaction. Collecting every single one of them will not only make you feel like a professional but also give you a special achievement.

Speaking of achievements, King’s Bird has 13 of them. In order to get all of them, you will have to complete the game twice, complete all levels, collect all spirit birds and finish the last and hardest level in under 10 minutes. This might seem difficult at first, but if I could do it, so can you!

The Bad

A perfect game doesn’t exist. This one is no different. Controls can be awkward at times, to say the least. I found myself completely speechless at certain moments because I didn’t understand what I did wrong. The same input would lead to 2 or 3 different outcomes.

The difficulty spikes are real. Naturally, the first world is difficult because you are new to the game and don’t know and/or understand the mechanics of the game. Then you finally understand what do you need to do and feel like a real bird, flying through levels. But then the game says NO. The final world is insanely hard and the first time you play it will test your patience. Yes, the same level that you will have to complete in under 10 minutes to get an achievement. Since I was curious, I looked up the top times of the section. The best times were in the range of 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Worst of all is the performance issue. I don’t have a top-tier rig, but it’s not bad either. Even then, the game would start playing in slow motion, or lag randomly… This is unacceptable for an indie game. Even more so when the game is a precise platformer with tight controls. Changes in game speed would occasionally ruin my attempts. Luckily the checkpoints are pretty common.

The Finale

At the very end of the game, you will battle it out against your nemesis. As you do not have any attacks per se, you will be forced to dodge and evade until you are given the opportunity to strike back. This is a battle for supremacy of the skies and will test everything you have learned throughout your journey. You will have to be fearless and fly like never before to be successful.

The verdict

The King’s Bird is a wonderful indie platformer that will test your skill and patience. You will spend hours practicing certain jumps but that feeling when you finally succeed is unexplainable. Global leaderboards will allow you to compare yourself to other players. I recommend it to fans of the genre and speed runners but unless you are in that group, your money is best spent elsewhere.

Release date: 23 Aug, 2018

System requirements: Windows 7 or higher, 1.7GHz Dual Core CPU, 2 GB Ram, Intel HD Graphics, 6 GB available space.

EVE Online

One of the oldest games still active today. If you've never heard of EVE Online then I don't know where you get your gaming information, but you should ask for your money back. EVE is a space sim, much like No Man's Sky, but without being able to land on a planet.

And, it's free. As of sometime in recent history. The game used to run on a monthly subscription model, but this was later reviewed to be no longer viable. This doesn't automatically mean the game is dead or dying, it's just a different audience than it used to have.

No Man's Sky has you happily hopping around planets, scanning new things and fighting the occasional sentinel. EVE has you battling large scale space battles with hundreds of other players. NMS is pretty much zero PvP, while EVE is 99% PvP. You will get killed, you will be hunted and you will make enemies. That's not something suited for everyone, especially in a time when most games focus more and more on the casual gamer.

Customization

Eve has one of the most advanced character creation modules I've seen so far. In such a way that even Cyberpunk 2077 feels lacking and basic. Alternative character creation video here, both male and female body customization.

You create you avatar (or, pilot) as a representation of yourself or anyone you want to be. The editor is great for just posing and taking screenshots to use in other games or even forums. Normally your face is the only thing other pilots will see, but you also have a crew quarters aboard a space station where you can walk around.

It's well worth noting this game is from 2003, and has had several graphical overhauls. It's downright beautiful, even compared to most modern games from 202x. If you have a good graphics card it's a great way to produce insane space backgrounds / wallpapers.

Solo play

The game puts you in the deep end of the pool pretty quickly, and the interface is anything but simple. If you prefer solo play - there's plenty of it to be had while exploring, mining or working the market. Space is big, and you can get lost in it quite easily. You will eventually run into players however, as it's an integral part of the game no matter what your preferences are. PvP is inevitable much like death and taxes. EVE is at it's core a player run game and trying to stay solo is like swimming against the stream. You either get with the flow, or have a bad time.

Skills and craft

As a free player you'll be restricted to a limited set of skills and ships. Not to worry, there's still a LOT, and it's recommended to start out as a free account either way. It takes time to learn skills - real world time. At the least, the skill training of your pilot will continue even while you are asleep.

The skill tree is pretty big, and it'll take years to actually learn everything. Most pilots choose to focus on weapons and a specific ship of their choosing. You can have multiple characters on your account so choosing different skill trees for each of them is a good way to ensure maximum versatility.

Player versus Player

EVE is famous for it's PvP. Hundreds, even thousands player real time simultaneous space battles are part of it's history. These battles will ensure the destruction of many ships with a converted real money value reaching in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. More on that later.

PvP is where EVE shines. As mentioned, solo is possible - but just not recommended. Going into the deeper territories known as "nullsec" means you are open and vulnerable to other player pirates. You'll be killed for your cargo, or just killed because the other player is bored. Thus, having either a big ship with a good few guns - or a party of other players while exploring dangerous territories is highly recommended!

There's a wide variety of weapons available to specialize in - ranging from plasma guns, rockets, lasers to mini drones. As with every weapon and ship your skills will help improve their effectiveness. More damage, better shields.

Death at least is always likely with every portal jump. But death is not the end. You'll be able to "back up" yourself at a cost. This ensures your skills are not lost, even though your ship will be destroyed. Make sure you keep a spare ship, and never fly anything you can't afford to lose.

Running the Market

Nearly all items are tradeable. In fact, there's very little that can't be traded, given or simply stolen from other players. The fun bit is the economy. Items have a value based on supply and demand - you can make an absolute killing by starting a shipping line. Delivering goods from one space station to another. Anyone need a specific ore? Either mine it, or buy it cheap. The tricky part is delivering it. Because yes - you need to either deliver it yourself, or your client has to come pick it up. No intangible goods in EVE other than money (ISK). If you buy a ship at space station A, then that's where your ship will be. Do you need a new ship at space station B, then tough luck - you'll have to load it up in a freighter and ship it there, or fly it yourself. This brings risks obviously - pirates love to prey on hapless merchants. There have been plenty of reports of players losing hundreds, even thousands in real world value to pirate destruction. Always be prepared.

Real money

EVE is free, up to a point. If you enjoy the game there's starter packs ranging from bronze up to platinum with added perks, omega (unrestricted) game time, ship skins and in-game currency.

EVE Interstellar Kredits is the main currency that all players use in the game. Aside that there's PLEX, which is the so called premium currency that can be used for special items, Omega (unrestricted) game time, or trading.

You can buy and sell either, and there is always a demand for both. Thus you could in theory mine an asteroid and grow your wealth in game, then buy unrestricted game time using that wealth. Or, you could trade the ISK to another player and get PLEX from them after they buy it with actual cash. Yes, you can play the game for free - in much the same way as though someone was paying for it. A good pirate could rob a merchant carrying several thousands worth of PLEX and buy himself a haul that would have been worth as much as a new PC with the money he stole.

Obviously such cases are rare - but very possible. Sadly it's against the end user agreement to sell your PLEX or ISK to other players for real life money. But ISK does have a real world value to most players - which is why the value of a ship can be expressed in either ISK or dollars.

A few years back a player was flying a gold magnate ship, worth several trillion ISK (several thousand dollars worth), and got killed. The ship now destroyed, and the player devastated. The pirate? Fame and glory, bragging rights beyond any other. As well as a new enemy for life.

EVE Online is available on Steam, or through a standalone installer.

Release date: 6 May, 2003

Minimum system requirements: Windows 7 or higher - 64 bit. Intel or AMD dual core 2 GHz CPU, 4 GB ram, 23 GB disk space, AMD Radeon 2600 XT or Nvidia geforce 8600 GTS, high speed internet.